Saturday’s Wrestling Under the Stars, presented by Northeast Wrestling at Dutchess Stadium in Fishkill was a unique show, but one that seemed to have a lot of different things for all sorts of fans.

The meet-and-greet where the headliners were Hulk Hogan down the left-field line and Rowdy Roddy Piper down the right-field line started 90 minutes earlier than originally advertised at 2 p.m. in order to plan better for impending thunderstorms in the region. Dutchess Stadium is the 4,494-seat home of the New York-Penn League’s Hudson Valley Renegades, the short-season, Class A affiliate of the Tampa Bay Rays. Those storms came into play as the show wore on.

For the fan-fest portion of the show, Hogan and Piper had incredibly long lines of people and, to their credit, they both signed from 2 p.m. to about 6:30 p.m. The right-field side of the stadium had The Beautiful People, Hacksaw Jim Duggan, Matt Hardy & Reby Sky, former New York Yankee Joe Ausanio, Goldust, NEW champion Brian Anthony and Lita. The left-field side had Vader, Matt Taven & Kasey Ray, New Windsor resident Bill Carr, Tony Nese, Luke Robinson, Romeo Roselli, Sami Callihan, Rosita and Madison Rayne. “The Mouth of the South” Jimmy Hart greeted fans with his megaphone at the NEW merchandise stand as they entered the stadium, while Caleb Konley, “Man Scout” Jake Manning and Adam Page were at the Highspots table.

• At about 6:30, the preshow band, Moodna Creek hit the stage and played for the fans, some of whom were eating dinner, some of whom were still getting things signed and some of whom were ready for wrestling. As a surprise at the end of their set, Jimmy Hart joined the band on stage. He had worked the previous day at WPDH (101.5 FM)’s Roof-a-Thon in Poughkeepsie, which is an annual event that raises money for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Fund. Hart was literally working Route 9 and the area parking lots, soliciting donations with his megaphone on Friday. To make a long story short, he promised a donor that if they donated, he would sing his old hit from his Gentrys days, “Keep on Dancin’” at the NEW show. He lived up to his end of the bargain and sang that song, while backed up by Moodna Creek, who closed their own set with a version of Rick Derringer’s ‘Real American.”

• Emcee Rick Zolzer, the voice of Army football and the Renegades, introduced the special guest ring announcer Charlie North, the president and CEO of the Dutchess County Regional Chamber of Commerce, who introduced the anthem singer. North also introduced the main event. The actual ring announcer was Charlie Burton.

• One nice touch for this show is that everyone was driven from the Renegades clubhouse to the aisle in club cars.

• Adam Page defeated Caleb Konley in about six minutes with a flying body press. Good fast-paced opener that saw Page do a shooting-star press from the apron to the outside on Konley. They fit a lot in to the time allotted and worked a crisp match. The fans got into it at the end, which was probably the desired effect.

• NEW ran a video tribute to Jerry “The King” Lawler on the centerfield scoreboard. Lawler has worked for NEW for many years and was scheduled to main event this show before his heart attack. Fans chanted Jerry.

• “Hacksaw” Jim Duggan & Bill Carr defeated “Man Scout” Jake Manning & Mr. TA. TA, who is a big bearded man who has worked in the past for Big Time Wrestling, said that he and Manning were there to put an end to Duggan. He also told the crowd that NEW security were alerted to eject anyone who chants “TA sucks.” You can probably guess what followed that. Anyway there was plenty of comedy in this match with Man Scout telling referee Sean Hansen that a closed fist was not in the Scout’s Code of Honor and TA running the ropes unharrassed. Match ended after about 6 or 7 minutes when Duggan hit the clothesline off the three-point stance on Manning.

• Next was Hulk Hogan. He thanked all the fans who he met earlier in the day for treating like he was still the world champion, said that he grew his black beard out to kick some butt in TNA, said their positive response reminded him of Montreal the night after WrestleMania XVIII when he “punked out” The Rock and said they made him feel like he could bodyslam Andre The Giant in the Pontiac Silverdome.

“Rowdy” Roddy Piper interrupted, holding a chair. Hulk Hogan said it was settled years ago, but gave Piper the chance to speak his mind. Piper called Hogan a “bald-headed, tanned, bronzed god.” He said Hogan wouldn’t be nothing if it wasn’t for him. He said while Hogan was riding around in limos with security being a face, Piper was in a Hertz rent-a –car, getting stabbed and drinking whiskey, making the fans love Hogan. While Hogan was on the front of the Wheaties box, taking vitamins, saying prayers, Piper was fighting everyone in the country while Hogan hid behind Mr. T. He said while Hogan was dating Cyndi Lauper, Piper was kicking her. He said while Hogan was hanging out with Mr. T, trying to get the Hollywood rub, Piper was slapping him. Piper told the fans to shut up and removed his jacket. Piper said while Hogan was kissing Vince McMahon’s bum, Piper was getting fired. Piper said he fought all the fans because of Hogan. Piper said Hogan was jealous of him. Piper said he made “They Live” while Hogan made “No Holds Barred.” Piper said at WrestleMania 2, while Hogan fought Bundy in L.A. in a cage, he finished Mr. T, Hogan’s buddy. He claimed it was the first time in 15 years he had seen Hogan (despite that they worked together at WrestleMania XIX and wrestled in WWE when Hogan was Mr. America). Piper said he was the guy Hogan could never beat and that he beat Hogan clean in the middle of the ring and Hogan never beat him. Piper flipped off Hogan.

Hogan said if you looked back at his career even though he was training, saying his prayers and eating his vitamins, “I was partying pretty hard on the backside, Jack.” Hogan said while he was dating Lauper, he might have also been kicking her on the backside. He said he and Piper would go down in history as “The War That Was Never Scored.” Hogan said the way he saw it, they needed to find out what page they were really on. Hogan said if Piper was going to call him out, it was game on. Hogan put down the mic and got in a fighting stance. Piper stripped off his shirt and his kilt and had trunks on underneath. Piper kicked his kilt in Hogan’s face. They teased squaring off for about 5 minutes at least and milked the moment for all it was worth. They waited long enough that the crowd thought they might hug it out, a la Kane and Daniel Bryan.

The end result? Piper extended his hand for Hogan to shake. He told Hulk he could rush out if he wanted, but he wanted him to do a couple of ear-cup poses and give the people what they want. He teased him that he didn’t know how to do it anymore. After the posing, Piper teased that Hogan left before he did. A long segment and a fun segment for anyone who wanted to see Hogan and Piper, but more importantly, see them together. The whole thing lasted about 25 minutes.

• Up next was Madison Rayne & Rosita vs. The Beautiful People — Angelina Love & Velvet Sky with Amy Dumas (Lita) as special referee. This had decent action in it and the Beautiful People picked up the win with a combination clothesline-leg sweep. After the match, Madison Rayne got in Lita’s face and was dropped with the Twist of Fate. It started to drizzle a little bit during this match.

• Vader defeated Tony Nese. Nese tried to take the big man down to no avail. Vader nailed all of his trademark stuff and finished Nese with a Vader Bomb. The rain started to pick up just as this match ended.

• Brian Anthony made an awesome entrance in a neon green (his colors) jeep for his NEW title defense in a falls-count anywhere match against Matt Taven (accompanied by Kasey Ray). Mother Nature had other ideas. A steady rain at the beginning of the match turned into a torrential downpour, causing most of the fans who ran to the stadium concourse during the Vader-Nese match, including me, to run for cover. Hansen stopped the match and the announcer said Anthony won, but that apparently was premature.

• At this time, the show went into roughly a 30-45 minute rain delay as a thunderstorm rolled through the area. After it ended, stadium crew dried off the ring with leaf blowers and many fans returned to their seats. Those who were still there (maybe 40 percent of the audience?) quickly got back to the field as Anthony and Taven restarted their match, which was a fun, wild brawl all over the stadium. They brawled through ringside and through the grandstand, over seats, into fences, into the dugout. Anthony was crotched on the dugout. The two brawled on top of the Renegades dugout when Kasey Ray interfered on Taven’s behalf. This was absolutely the perfect thing to come on after a long break as it got the disenchanted crowd right back into the show.

Anthony retained the title with a flying elbow off the top of the Renegades’ dugout and through a table.

• Matt Hardy defeated Sami Callihan with a twist of fate in about five or six minutes. Since Anthony and Taven didn’t really use the ring much, we got to see here how dry the ring, which did not have a canopy or anything over it, was. Stadium staff did use a tarpaulin to cover the ring during delays. Hardy tweeted that it was soaked and kind of like wrestling on a slip and slide. Callihan hit an exploder right from the start and worked Hardy’s leg with an Indian death lock and what looked like a figure four. Hardy sold the leg to the point of ripping his boot off. Reby Sky got involved and Callihan grabbed her by the hair. Hardy hit the Twist of Fate and that was that. Match might have been a bit better if not for the conditions.

• Joe Ausanio & Dustin Runnels (Goldust) defeated Romeo Roselli & Luke Robinson when Ausanio pinned Luke after a pitching windup into a right hand. Ausanio, who pitched for the New York Yankees in 1994 and 1995, did a nice job in his pro debut, playing to the crowd and even throwing a standing dropkick to Roselli and then one to Robinson. After Ausanio outwrestled Roselli, Roselli said he would be better at Joe’s sport and took out a wiffle ball and bat from under the ring and asked Ausanio to pitch to him. Ausanio struck him out, of course. More wrestling ensued. Ultimately, Goldust got Robinson in the shattered dreams position and then Ausanio came in with the right hand.

After the match, Ausanio thanked Goldust and the fans and also acknowledged his scheduled partner, Jerry Lawler, whom he was happy to say was at home resting in Memphis after his heart attack.

I will have photos and video from the show over the next few days, so keep checking back to Under the Ring at http://blogs.poughkeepsiejournal.com/underthering

6 Responses to Live perspective from Northeast Wrestling’s “Wrestling Under the Stars”

Sounds like the crowd was good, though, do you know if they had a break even? I would suspect that the costs was higher than usual, due to Hogan. Overall sounds like it was a good night of family entertainment, though, I would of used the opportunity to somehow get the head attraction of the NEW promotion, a rub from Piper and/or Hogan, that being Brian Anthony, but I guess the rain, along with the switches MAY HAVE prevented that. Still, decent show…

I think the main attractions on NEW live events are the headliners. While NEW champion Brian Anthony is excellent, I’m not sure what a Hogan or Piper endorsement really would have done for him. He and Matt Taven really went all out after the rain delay and are to be commended for their efforts.

I have no idea what the financials of this show ended up being as I did not ask anyone. It looked like the meet and greet was very successful. Another thing is that starting at 2 allowed everyone to sell merchandise and concessions even longer than they would have normally.

Interesting. You would think that they would try to at least build something around some of the locals. From the looks of it, NEW only runs shows with “bigger names” correct? then if so, it makes sense, as they are the drawing point.

I seen your tweet about the crowd, 2900 or so, that is damn awesome numbers… I bet the weather scared some walk up away… a full stadium would of been spectacular… and too bad you didn’t get to ask Matt Taven what happened with his “development deal”. No not looking for dirt, just the facts… I sound like Sgt. Joe Friday from Dragnet… (no I did not get this from the Bobby Heenan book either) HAHAHA.

They do build things around the locals from time to time. Anthony and Taven had a big cage match in Connecticut that was heavily hyped where Anthony won the title on his home turf. Vik Dalishus and Hale Collins did a match that Bret Hart was involved with in Poughkeepsie. It probably depends on the situation more than anything.

I spoke to Matt Taven briefly on Saturday. I think he will end up in WWE sooner or later. He belongs there and he probably has what they are looking for.